Finding Root Cause.

In my work, we go in search of root causes so we can fix the cause of a problem instead of playing the blaming game.
Most of the people hate it.  They just want to keep punishing the person that messed up, even if that error occurs repeatedly because our process is broken.
We competitive, hellfire and brimstone types find something very rewarding in punishment.
It makes those of us not being punished feel like we are contenders (say it like Marlon did)

But, while we can keep blaming people for falling into the many traps left for them by systems that don't work well for everyone or at all times---doesn't it make more sense to fix the system?

We, in this country (and apparently in many other countries, if global news is to be believed) are having a multitude of problems that just continue on and on. 
We have prisons full of drug addicts.
We have criminal enterprises.
We have homeless people.
We have people that are unemployed.
We have people that are uninsured.
We have people with little or no education.
We have people in this country that are undocumented.
We have corruption in politics, justice and big business.
We have companies asking employees to lie and cheat people to make quotas.
We have racism.
We have gender inequality.
We have bullying in schools.
We have people being targeted for violence because of their sexual orientation.
We have hate groups.
We have religious ostracism.
We have.....
where do I stop?  The world is not nice.  People are not nice. 

Do we punish them?  Everyone?  Each time someone does something that is not nice?
I hear "Money is the root of all evil!"  (it is actually supposed to the be love of money...)
I hear  "They need God"
I hear  "We need to bring back corporeal punishment"
I hear  "We need to step up capital punishment, they know that even if they get caught, they have years before anything will happen.

I don't hear "Why?"
Why? is not an appropriate question according to child psychologists.  They might be right--for children--but I think even children can discover the reason why they did something.  Maybe they can't answer why fast, but they can search for why?

Adults can't answer "why?" quickly AND accurately either.  And Why? is not a one time question.  Why? merely leads to more why's.  And that is why it is useful.

#1  Why do we have prisons full of drug addicts?  Because drug use, except for use of prescription drugs as directed by a physician is illegal, and usually a felony.  Why?  Because in the United states we have a law giving control of drug use to the Medical Community for treatment of physical and mental illness only.  Why?  Because if everyone can just buy them willy-nilly, they won't use them appropriately and they can be dangerous--besides, people go to Doctors for prescriptions, cut them out of the process and they lose a lot of income.   So why would they buy them if they didn't need them?  Because they want to escape, they want to feel better, they want to get happy, they want to relax, they feel stressed and hopeless and stuck.  Why? Because they are poor and uneducated and depressed.  Because they have a mental illness.  Because their job is a pitcher plant, easy to get in, impossible to get out.  Because they are searching for themselves and their friends are trying it and they heard it was great.  Because they got hurt and it stops the pain.  Because they are addicted and don't know how to stop, are afraid to stop or don't want to stop, even though they know it will eventually kill them.  Why?  Because modern life has lots of stressors but few places to learn to cope with them.  Because modern life likes to consider those stressors to be the way to separate the winners from the losers.  Because LIFE is a competition in our culture. Why?  Because, while we completely reject Darwin's evolution, whereby all life evolved from simpler lifeforms, we have yet to release the idea of Social Darwinism and "Survival of the fittest".  It is right up there with laissez faire capitalism and the idea that Rich people really are better than poor people.  Why?  Because, if those of us that aren't rich, reject the idea that money is the scorecard, what are we working for?  How do we know we are still in the game.  What is our reason for continuing?  Why?

Why? 
Why do we have criminal enterprises?  Because if you can't make it in the acceptable business world, there is money to be had in the land of the illegal. Why? Because people will pay for drugs, sex, and other things it is illegal to sell, and they will pay big?  Why?  See question #1.  But what about sex? why will people pay for sex?  Or guns that are easily purchasable through half a dozen vendors?  Or for stolen merchandise?  Art? Cars? Jewelry? Tools? Why?  The first thing to remember about any criminal enterprise, it is paid for by people that want something that they can't buy legally or can't afford except if it was obtained illegally.  The Prohibition created a huge criminal Enterprise just by making alcoholic beverages illegal.  So maybe the best question is why do we make laws against things that we know will create an opportunity for a criminal enterprise.  Maybe the answer is finding ways to make there be well regulated pathways to obtaining these things as long as there are not victims created.  For a lot of this stuff, the whole appeal is the risk and excitement of doing something that is taboo. (There is a whole realm of stuff that is only exciting if it creates a victim and for that, no mercy and no legal route to obtain)

Why?
Why do we have homeless people?  Because not everyone can afford housing.  Why?  Because housing is expensive and not everyone can get a good job or even a bad job.  Why?  "Because housing is a very profitable business and the demand for housing, even crappy, unrepaired old houses with crooked porches and lead pipe plumbing, is high.  There are empty houses, some rather nice in those slowly aging and depopulating rural towns, but those houses are not free and they are aging and depopulating because their are no jobs.  Why is having a house or apartment linked to a job?  Because we are a capitalist country.  So why are there people without jobs?  Because they have no skills, they are too old to do manual labor.  They are mentally ill.  They are addicted to drugs.  They had skills in a field that is not longer needed like repairing toasters or using a spinning wheel.  They have no teeth so can't represent a company to the customers.  They are blind.  They are on disability and would rather use their money on other things than rent and utilities--like food and medicine or alcohol.  So, why do we not have housing available to them, get them off the street permanently instead of letting missions taking in a different 20% every night.  Homeless people cost money to the areas they hang out.  They use lots of emergency healthcare which is expensive.  Why don't we try to find them a new way to live that they can succeed at. 

Why?
Why do we insist on keeping our problems instead of fixing them?

Why do we demonize people and groups of people and philosophies and beliefs that differ from our own?

Why do we insist on using the same systems, processes and rules that have not worked in the past?
Why?

Why do we think that someone else is more likely to know the answers to all those questions than we are, or be able to fix the problems better than we can, or identify new solutions that are smarter than the solutions we can think of?
Why?

Why don't we all become problem-solvers, detectives, brain-stormers, think-tankers and creators of a better world.
Let us lose our lazy thinking, our comfortable thoughts about right and wrong, our borrowed philosophies that we not only haven't really read, but don't understand, and examine the why? of our human condition. 

Why not?